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Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was
Sjón
€ 11.99
€ 10.05
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Description for Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was
Paperback. The mesmerising new novel by Iceland's internationally renowned writer Sjon - 'the trickster that makes the world, and he is achingly brilliant' Junot Diaz, 'an extraordinary and original writer' A.S. Byatt. Translator(s): Cribb, Victoria. Num Pages: 160 pages. BIC Classification: FA; FYT. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 132 x 262 x 21. Weight in Grams: 154.
Winner of the Icelandic Literary Prize 'An extraordinary and original writer' A.S. Byatt on Sjon Reykjavik, 1918. The eruptions of the Katla volcano darken the sky night and day. Yet despite the natural disaster, the shortage of coal and the Great War still raging in the outside world, life in the small capital goes on as always. Sixteen-year-old Mani Steinn lives for the movies. Awake, he lives on the fringes of society. Asleep, he dreams in pictures, the threads of his own life weaving through the tapestry of the films he loves. When the Spanish flu epidemic comes ashore, killing hundreds of townspeople and forcing thousands to their sick beds, the shadows that linger at the edges of existence grow darker and Mani is forced to re-evaluate both the society around him and his role in it. Evoking the moment when Iceland's saga culture met the new narrative form of the cinema and when the isolated island became swept up in global events, this is the story of a misfit transformed by his experiences in a world where life and death, reality and imagination, secrets and revelations jostle for dominance.
Product Details
Publisher
Hodder & Stoughton General Division
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2017
Condition
New
Number of Pages
160
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
ISBN
9781473613157
SKU
V9781473613157
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 5 to 9 working days
Ref
99-99
About Sjón
Born in Reykjavik in 1962, Sjon is an Icelandic writer whose novels The Blue Fox, The Whispering Muse, From the Mouth of the Whale, Moonstone and CoDex 1962 have been translated into thirty-five languages. He has won several awards including the Nordic Council's Literature Prize for The Blue Fox and has also been shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, while Moonstone won the Icelandic Literary Prize and the Icelandic Booksellers' prize for Novel of the Year. Sjon has also published nine poetry collections, written four opera librettos as well as lyrics for various artists, and was nominated for an Oscar for his lyrics in the film Dancer in the Dark. In 2017, Sjon became the third writer - following Margaret Atwood and David Mitchell - to contribute to Future Library, a public artwork based in Norway spanning 100 years. He lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. Victoria Cribb has translated more than twenty-five books by Icelandic authors. Her translations of Moonstone and CoDex 1962 were both longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award and the PEN America Translation Prize. In 2017 she received the Ordstir honorary translation award for services to Icelandic literature.
Reviews for Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was
Moonstone takes its place among the great works of literature that have documented life during the Spanish-flu epi-demic . . . Sjon is one of our era's great writers. Like Ovid, Kafka, and Bulgakov, he is fascinated by metamorphosis and, from apparently limitless resources of the imagination, can convey what it must feel like.
Charles Baxter
The Nation
When the meaning of the book's subtitle is finally explained, the effect is powerful. MOONSTONE is about human decency, courage and respect for the individual. It is a small book with a large heart.
Chris Power
New Statesman
Sjon's Moonstone is a marvel of a novel, queer in every sense of the word - an impeccable little gem
Rabih Alameddine
A magical book, the work of a great illusionist. You see the historical moment unfurl, luminous with desire and imagination and the flames of an erupting volcano, dark with repression, disease and death. You see it all through the poetic, poignant images of Mani Steinn's story. And then in a final flourish you see it all vanish in a way that makes it unforgettable.
Adam Foulds
Tender, elegiac and occasionally surreal
Angel Gurria-Quintana
Financial Times, Summer Books
I always enjoy Sjon's books, but Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was is an experience like no other. The author confronts his own limits, and raises the bar for the reader too. His portrayal of Reykjavik in 1918 is magical. The scene where a movie theatre falls silent, because all the musicians have succumbed to an outbreak of Spanish flu, is marvellous and very amusing. The novel has given me my best reading experience this year.
Eka Kurniawan
Best Books of 2016, Financial Times
A work of miniaturist perfection: a brief, brilliant jewel of a book in which each paragraph is precision-cut, each sentence burnished.
Sarah Crown
Guardian
MOONSTONE is Sjon's slim, simmering masterpiece. Vibrant and visceral, briskly paced but meditative, unsettling yet droll and flecked with beauty, it is a pitch-perfect study of transgression, survival and love.
David Mitchell
Sjon's prose is never histrionic or overwrought, balancing rage and hallucination . . . with a gentleness of spirit, an affection for precision and the small scale. The result is sure to delight his fans and convert many new ones.
Hari Kunzru
Guardian
Charles Baxter
The Nation
When the meaning of the book's subtitle is finally explained, the effect is powerful. MOONSTONE is about human decency, courage and respect for the individual. It is a small book with a large heart.
Chris Power
New Statesman
Sjon's Moonstone is a marvel of a novel, queer in every sense of the word - an impeccable little gem
Rabih Alameddine
A magical book, the work of a great illusionist. You see the historical moment unfurl, luminous with desire and imagination and the flames of an erupting volcano, dark with repression, disease and death. You see it all through the poetic, poignant images of Mani Steinn's story. And then in a final flourish you see it all vanish in a way that makes it unforgettable.
Adam Foulds
Tender, elegiac and occasionally surreal
Angel Gurria-Quintana
Financial Times, Summer Books
I always enjoy Sjon's books, but Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was is an experience like no other. The author confronts his own limits, and raises the bar for the reader too. His portrayal of Reykjavik in 1918 is magical. The scene where a movie theatre falls silent, because all the musicians have succumbed to an outbreak of Spanish flu, is marvellous and very amusing. The novel has given me my best reading experience this year.
Eka Kurniawan
Best Books of 2016, Financial Times
A work of miniaturist perfection: a brief, brilliant jewel of a book in which each paragraph is precision-cut, each sentence burnished.
Sarah Crown
Guardian
MOONSTONE is Sjon's slim, simmering masterpiece. Vibrant and visceral, briskly paced but meditative, unsettling yet droll and flecked with beauty, it is a pitch-perfect study of transgression, survival and love.
David Mitchell
Sjon's prose is never histrionic or overwrought, balancing rage and hallucination . . . with a gentleness of spirit, an affection for precision and the small scale. The result is sure to delight his fans and convert many new ones.
Hari Kunzru
Guardian